Parents of one in four state pupils pay for private tuition

More than a quarter of all state pupils have lessons with private tutors because parents do not trust their schools to teach them well enough, new research has revealed.

The study, by London University's Institute of Education is the first to investigate the extent of private tutoring in England. It found widespread dissatisfaction with how quickly pupils were learning in schools, and in teachers' ability to improve grades, particularly in maths.

The research supports anecdotal evidence that more parents are hiring tutors, who charge up to £35 an hour. Tony Blair and his wife were revealed in 2002 to have hired tutors from the independent Westminster School for their two elder sons who were pupils at a successful state school.

In some of the primary and secondary schools in the study, 60 per cent of the pupils received private tuition. The research indicates that almost two million children across England use additional private teaching.

This casts doubt on Government claims that state schools and teachers are better than ever before. It also raises questions about whether recent improvements in exam results might be attributable to the extra coaching.

Related Articles

The study analysed a sample of 30 primary and 34 secondary schools across the country, interviewing more than 3,000 pupils aged 11, 16 and 18. They found that 27 per cent of students had a private tutor. Most were tutored in maths, followed by English, science, and to a lesser extent, French, history and geography.

The majority of students said that their parents had hired tutors to improve their performance in examinations. At primary level, almost 70 per cent were tutored for entry exams, reflecting the fierce competition for good secondary school places.

A significant number of respondents expressed unhappiness with the quality of school teaching. Almost one in five said that they had tutors because they did not learn well from their teachers, while 15 per cent said that the schools failed to do enough, rising to 19 per cent among 16-year-olds. One in 10 indicated that schools offered too little help to pupils with special educational needs.

Dr Judy Ireson, the report's author, said: "Families feel their children are not receiving sufficient support in primary school and see tutoring as a way of boosting their chances of a place in grammar schools or popular comprehensives. At secondary level, the relatively high rate of maths tutoring suggests that it is used to help students achieve the all-important C grade at GCSE."

Some agencies have estimated that the tuition market is worth £100 million a year.

Andrew Gilbert, who owns A1 Tutors, a firm with 2,000 tutors in southern England, said that tuition was now affordable for most families and demand was booming. "Parents worry about big classes and just how much children learn."

Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "It is a serious indictment of the state system, especially when politicians keep telling us that standards are higher than ever. The use of private tutors shows parents are losing faith in schools."

David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said there had been an "explosive growth" in the use of tutors. "The figures are quite dramatic. It sends a clear message to Government that it needs to do a lot more to make sure schools have the resources for smaller classes and the ability to deal with the increasing number of children with special educational needs."

An Education Department spokesman said: "The Office for Standards in Education, in their official and independent report, tells us that we have the best generation of teachers ever." She said that if parents wanted to employ tutors they were free to do so.

Two reports last week suggested that improving results are down to flawed statistics and easier exams rather than improvements in state schools.